Moonless
by BoundlessImagination
Summary: Staying still and pretending to sleep throughout it was the hardest thing he'd done in his life - and he'd battled monsters and slayed zombies. As soon as he sensed they were gone Kaede flopped onto his back and stared at the ceiling, eyes dry. It hurt, even when he'd known it was coming. It burned in his chest and it fucking hurt.


_A.N.: Errr... It's smutty, the first half at least. But it's also about a bit more than just smut. Anise ended up with Kaede at the end, and that's _right_, they should be together. But Mutsuki was never going to give up so easily. _

_So yeah, this is my take on it. Takes place a few years after the ending of the manga.  
_

* * *

Moonless

* * *

The first time he visited was a night of no moon. She was lying awake on her bed, staring at the ceiling, when a shadow passed across the window and she knew that he was there. Her hands clenched on the sheets and her heart started pounding loudly.

_I'm only going to check up on him_, she told herself. _He's been gone so long. I'll __find out how he's doing. _She squashed down the nagging voice at the back of her head that knew it was a lie. She climbed out of the bed, barefoot, the small pajama shorts and flimsy top barely covering the essentials of her skin. Her blood was roaring with anticipation and adrenaline - he'd always carried that with him, the thrill of something dangerous and dark and foreign that she couldn't resist - and she paused at the window of the veranda, shooting a guilty look at the mop of red hair visible from under the covers. _We're only going to talk. It's nothing to feel guilty about._ She shook her head and stepped out, softly closing the glass door behind her.

The night was so dark she didn't even see him, at first. Then something grabbed her arm and pressed her against the wall and she was staring up at a pair of crimson eyes that were oddly predatory and feral. "Anise," _he_ breathed, sending a chill down her spine. She remembered Seiran telling Kaede once not to pick a fight with _him_ at night and finally understood why. At night, he was different, and dangerous, and powerful. Her heart started beating even faster, picking up its pace into overtime.

"Mutsuki," she greeted in a surprisingly calm voice. He was all sharp edges and pale skin and dark eyes just like she remembered, though his hair had grown slightly longer and tickled her cheek, close as his face was. She grinned. "How have you been?"

The intensity of his eyes never dimmed. "I've been… waiting for the right moment."

An arched eyebrow. "What moment?"

"The moment to steal you away." The movement of his lips brushed hers in a whisper kiss that made her blood feel like electricity. She'd missed him, she realized. When he disappeared, finally free of the thorns that had bound him all his life - to his brother, to the White Rose, to Anise herself - although she'd understood it, although she'd felt his need for freedom in the last moments of their connection, she'd wished he would stay.

For years no one had heard a word from him. There had been rumors, of demons and storms in moonless nights, but no one knew where he'd gone or what he was doing. Now that he was here and making her heart beat in a way Kaede never would, she knew she, too, had been waiting for the moment he would come back. "Then steal me," she whispered. If he was surprised he didn't show it. In an instant she was swept up in a whirlwind of red eyes and black petals and the ground was disappearing fast underneath her feet.

They landed in the midst of a forest, one Anise didn't recognize in the darkness, and besides she was too distracted by the way Mutsuki's arms were holding her tightly against him and his eyes burned into her own. "Anise," he said again, one of his hands coming up to caress her cheek. She felt herself blush and was suddenly shy, and she remembered Kaede in the bedroom and _Oh God what was she doing_ - "Pease, Anise, don't." There was pain in his voice. "Don't think about him. Be only mine tonight."

His lips crashed into hers with a force Anise hadn't expected from him, and she responded by arching into him and bringing her arms around his neck and pulling them closer. His tongue devoured her mouth with a desperate hunger and a very soft moan escaped her throat. Mutsuki's fingers tightened against her like a drowning man clinging to a log, in a vice-like grip she wouldn't be able to break even if she'd wanted to. She felt heat surging through her veins and another moan leaving her lips as he bent down to kiss her neck.

"W-wait, Mutsuki."

"No. I've waited long enough." His teeth scraped against the choker of the rose around her neck. "Do you have any idea," he growled, "what I felt, knowing that you were in _his_ bed every night, that _he_ was the one to hold you and kiss you and I just a whisper of a thought in the back of your mind?"

"W-wait." She cupped his face and forced him to look at her, in that straight-forwards and confident and demanding way that was so _her_. His crimson eyes were wild and dark with hunger, and she gave him a little smile. "I just wanted to tell you I'm glad you're back."

His lips stretched into something that was more of a smirk than a smile. "I know." His hands casually traveled down her back and Anis blushed again as they gripped her butt. One of them slid underneath her thigh and pulled her leg up, hooking it around his waist. Anis bit her lip at the intimate closeness of their bodies, blood roaring because they were in the middle of a forest for God's sake and this was really, really naughty, and good girls didn't do this.

Mutsuki watched her, drinking from her reactions with the smirk still on his face, and then kissed her again. His hand traveled up her leg, slipped under her thin pajama shirt and traced a path up to her breast. "Uh-ah," she gasped softly, as he squished once. Her nipple was hard, budding against his fingers, and he knead on it with his thumb, relishing in the little twitches her body gave as it arched more and more against him. "Ah!" It was more breathless, this time, and Mutsuki wondered in a darkly vindictive manner what the mutt would think if he saw them then, with Anise hot and wriggling against him.

He popped all the buttons of the shirt open in one motion, eliciting another gasp as the cold air made contact with her skin. "N-no fair," she protested, tugging insistently at his clothes. "Take your coat off too."

Her tone had acquired the tinge of command he recognized from long ago, and he was happy to comply, laying the wide black fabric of his cloak on the ground and then without any warning picking her up, whirling them around and laying her on it, being careful to cushion the fall with his arms. She looked up at him first in shock then something else, lids falling halfway shut at the sight of his pale face cut against the stars and his Adam's apple bobbing up and down as he swallowed.

Oh jesus. Her body was so hot and so close and he could feel every curve of it against him. Shit. She was beautiful and he wanted to take her, to pound her savagely into the forest floor and make her scream out his name. The desire cursing through him in that moment was a thousand times stronger than that time he kissed her in the storm and like that time he was unable to resist it. His hand was on her breast again and his tongue on the other, nipping and licking and biting and "Ah, hang on, your shirt, ahhhh..." Then her body started _rocking_ and he lost it.

He tore her shorts away and tugged down the panties underneath, slipping a finger inside her only for long enough to make sure she was wet enough. She was, and in fact she cried out particularly loudly, and he couldn't resist thrusting it in again just to hear her do it one more time. He used his thumb to knead on the pearl a bit higher from her entrance in slow circles. "Ah, Mutsuki, I-I'm-" she cut herself off as he threw in a second finger and started pumping in and out, in and out until she was a wriggling body of wanton desire underneath him, panting and crying and gripping the coat to anchor herself. He stopped just when he could feel her coming, eliciting a plaintive cry and a violent rocking of her body in search of the contact he'd taken away.

Mutsuki pressed his now wet hand down on her hips to stop her from moving. "You're mine," he whispered darkly in her ear. "Mine. Say it." He felt the shiver running through her as she kept trying to push against his hand. He had to hear it. He was hers already, he'd already given her everything once upon a time and was it so selfish to want to hear it back only once, even if it was just tonight, even if it was just in this primal, animalistic way, was it so selfish to want some part of her?

"I'm yours," she panted, eyes hazy and confused. "I'm yours, I'm yours, Mutsuki, please-"

He lowered his pants and nudged her entrance with his member, which was so hard it throbbed painfully. "Yes, please-" he penetrated her without warning, all the way inside, and her eyes widened. "AAAH!" she cried, arching her back and throwing her head back against the ground. Mizuki himself let out a loud groan, feeling all that hotness and dampness clamp down on him so tightly. He'd wanted this for so long. He wasn't the only one, he knew, all the others probably wanted the same thing but she was with him now, she was _his_ now and he would make sure she never forgot it. He started pumping almost immediately, not giving her any time to recover, the pace fast and hard and making her breasts bounce and her hands grip the coat under her tighter, her mouth open, lips red and moist.

He bent down and plundered her mouth savagely in a crude imitation of what the lower half of their bodies were doing. Her cries were muffled by his mouth for a moment until he straightened, arms braced on either side of her so he could move better, more deeply. "Ah, Mizuki, yes! Deeper, ah, ah!"

"Ani-Anise-"

The forest stretched out, dark for miles around, silent save for the cries of a Princess and her Knight intermingling towards the stars.

* * *

Kaede knew.

He'd known from the first time it had happened. He knew Black was there before she did - she might have been their Dominion, bound to them by magic; but those ties had long been severed and they'd been partners and rivals for much longer. He knew Black was there, and it was only a matter of time before Anise got up from the bed and headed to the veranda, hesitating for a moment before slowly closing the window shut.

Staying still and pretending to sleep throughout it was the hardest thing he'd done in his life - and he'd battled monsters and slayed zombies. As soon as he sensed they were gone Kaede flopped onto his back and stared at the ceiling, eyes dry. It hurt, even when he'd known it was coming. It burned in his chest and it fucking hurt.

He pretended to be oblivious, of course. He feigned sleep when she returned three hours later with the smell of forest and danger and sex all over her. The next morning he greeted her as he usually did, with a smile and a bit of mean-spirited teasing, and she responded like she always did, with lots of bark and a little bit of bite. He stopped her temper tantrum by hugging her from behind and whispering "I love you" into her ear. She stilled, and for a moment he couldn't breathe, until she turned around and said "I love you too," eyes soft with emotion. In that moment he knew that, no matter what, she'd always be his in a way she was no one else's, because he was the one she loved and the one she would always return to in the end. Black didn't matter.

Hell, it wasn't like he hadn't shared her before. He'd been sharing her with three others for a long while - four, if you counted that bastard Yellow - he still had a score to settle with that fag, now that he thought about it - and he'd known that a part of her would never belong to him. But still, it had hurt just as much when she left again a month later, in the middle of the night just like the first time and his eyes were too dry to cry.

Anise was perfect when she was with Kaede. She was kind and smiling and happy and when they made love she was tender and sweet. He adored her, he had for a long time, and five years ago he would have given up everything to have her like he did now. Anise spoke of love and their lives together and once, cuddling in his bed, they'd spoken about children and her eyes had warmed up and stared at him with an emotion he knew was mirrored in his own. So Kaede was bitter, when she left his bed for one night every few weeks, but he was happy when he woke up in the morning to find her lying next to him again and knowing that yes, she was still his.

The Knights didn't officially see Black again until six months later, in one of their impromptu reunions around the Devil's seal. They'd all graduated long ago but they still visited Ninufa and Narumi-Sensei, more out of their compulsive habit to check on the seal, to make sure it was in fact not crumbling, than anything else. They'd been eating the cakes brought in by White's servants and fooling around, trying to get Seiran in a dress again, when Black showed up in the midst of them looking all dark and gloomy and mysterious like he always did.

Kaede saw the way Anise's eyes lit up, and the wry smirk curling around Black's lips, and he put an arm around her waist, startling her and drawing the other Knight's attention to himself. Black's smirk turned smug but Kaede held his gaze without flinching.

The others were oblivious to their silent exchange. "Oh, Mutsuki!" Tenjou exclaimed with a thin, displeased smile. "Fancy seeing you here, after all the time you have spent _evading me and all the minions I've sent after you_." The end of the sentence was cold and held the promise of _pain_. Mutsuki was the one with the specialty of search and retrieve, so it really wasn't a surprise that he'd trumped all of White's efforts to find him, but that didn't mean Tenjou had _accepted_ it.

"Wow, Mutsuki-kun, it's been so long!" Seiran exclaimed, then bounced over and hugged him around the waist. "It's so good to have you back! Where have you been all this time?"

There was a collective pause as they all followed Mutsuki's gaze to Anis and Kaede, who was still holding her. They finally seemed to notice the unnatural tension in the air as Anise stepped away from him and he dropped his arm. "It's good to see you here, Mutsuki," she said, walking over to peck him on the cheek. Mutsuki's eyes flew up and the mirth in them heightened when he saw the way the True Rose was clenching his teeth.

But then Anise returned to Kaede's side, confused by his tense expression but understanding it on a deeper, unconscious level. She casually leaned up and kissed him the lips in a promise that no, she would not be leaving him tonight, and it was Kaede's turn to smirk as Mutsuki's eyes narrowed. He slid an arm around her waist again, saying _mine_ with his eyes.

"Ninufa missed Blaaaaaaack!" The cute little fluffy thing cried, barreling into the knight and shattering away the uncomfortable silence like, well, a furry ball flying through the air. "Why you abandon me? Ninufa boo-boo!"

From then on it was like it had always been. The bastard slid right into the bastard-shaped hole he'd left behind, with his stoic silences and snide remarks and general belittling of everyone else (except for Seiran, because it was impossible to be mean to Seiran, the kid was too cute even five years later). Anise sometimes left Kaede's side to tease him or talk to him quietly but she had tea sitting on Kaede's lap and squeezed tightly when he intermingled his fingers with hers.

And Kaede was sure she would stay, in the end.

* * *

Mutsuki kept coming back to see them - _her_ - and leaving again after a couple of days.

He always felt alone when he returned her to her apartment and watched her climb into the bed next to the mutt, the pain tearing at his heart and threatening to gouge it out. He wished he could be capable of sleep just so he could wake up next to her, for once. He wished he could have her for more than just those few hours in the darkness. He wished he could have more than a stolen moment with her, but he'd understood that she just didn't love him. Or maybe she did, but not like she loved her True Rose, and in the end she'd always belong to him. Kaede was the man of her life.

She'd laughed, when he'd told her that. "What?" he smiled bitterly. "Is it not true? Won't you return to him, won't you completely forget me while you're with him?"

"Of course he's the man of my life, Mutsuki," she'd said.

His heart had torn a little. "Then what am I?"

"The other man of my life."

And he'd laughed then, because it was exactly the kind of thing she would say. And his chest had felt a little bit lighter.

But he still left. He still left and kept away for as long as he could manage because despite everything he knew he couldn't compare, he knew he would never be able to give her what the dog so effortlessly offered. Kaede was her safety and her peace and her light and he could never be that for her, because he was a creature of the night and it was his nature to live in the shadows.

In the end, he wasn't human. He couldn't anchor himself to a place like they did. He was freedom, danger and darkness. He couldn't expect her to give herself to him so completely, not when he knew she wouldn't be happy.

He couldn't help but wish, sometimes, that things had been different.

The mutt and him had come to an agreement of sorts, eventually. He could have her for one night, and Kaede would let him as long as he had all the rest of her life. It wasn't what either of them wanted but they both knew the other loved her and she was happier with both than with just one. "Look after her," Mutsuki had told him once, as Anise was still asleep in the bed and Kaede had woken up early, just in time to catch him leaving.

"Of course," he replied, a knowing smile on his lips.

With a nod Mutsuki took off to the sky, black cloak billowing around him and drowning out the beats of his own heart.

Sometimes he wished things had been different. But in the end, Anise was happy, and that was what counted.


End file.
